Daily Caller
How Trump And Musk Changed The Energy Conversation
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
It is somewhat amazing to reflect on how radically the conversation around energy has transformed in America since 2020. Amid all the societal madness that took place around an array of social issues – race, gender, DEI, disinformation and whether it should be censored – it was easy for many to ignore the similarly mad nature of discussions around energy which happened during the five years from 2020 through 2024.
Those who understand the complexities of energy in all its forms and wished to talk and write about them in a factual manner found themselves often being ordered or otherwise “encouraged” to at best soften their language on such things or, worse, to outright lie about them in order to maintain social license.
True story: In 2021, I was suspended for a full week by old Twitter, one of whose censors bluntly told me that some purely factual information I had written there about the use of coal in power generation was a violation of the platform’s “community standards,” such as they were at the time BE, i.e., Before Elon. A content cop at another social site informed me shortly later that the reason some of my posts were so obviously throttled was that the algorithm had identified me as being, and I quote, “pro-fossil fuels.”
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Never mind that literally every device this censor used in his job and at home was made up largely of parts derived from petroleum, or that his clothes were, as well, or that he no doubt enjoyed working in an office and living in an apartment whose lights and air conditioning were powered by natural gas or coal generation (yes, even in California): My typed words were the larger problem here. I would either bend to the will of the ubiquitous, all-seeing, all-powerful algorithm, or none of my 20,000 or so followers at the time would see anything I posted. Argue too strenuously, and I’d no doubt find myself banned. All because I believe “fossil fuels,” i.e., coal, oil, and natural gas and the hundreds of useful products derived from them are a net good for modern society.
It is not without irony that this madness all began to change shortly after the period of time we should call AM, i.e, “After Musk” arrived at Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022.
Within days of long-time fossil fuels critic Mr. Musk’s taking over what had been arguably the most censorious of all the big social media platforms, signs started to appear that free speech was breaking out all over, at least on that platform, and they gradually spread to other parts of the social media realm. The era of government and big tech social sites conspiring to censor thought and speech was coming to an end. All Americans owe Musk a debt of gratitude for providing the spark that helped beat back what was an extremely dangerous time for their freedoms.
It is no accident that the conversation around the energy transition and net-zero has shifted radically since. It is even less an accident that the shift has accelerated considerably since Jan. 20, when Donald Trump was sworn in as President for the second time.
Today, it is now widely accepted that dreams of a government-subsidized energy transition that controlled every energy conversation from 2020 through 2022 is not just unlikely but impossible. A statement that got me suspended from Facebook 2021 – that it is not possible for wind and solar to displace oil, gas, and coal in power generation due to this thing we call physics – is now a widely accepted energy reality.
The hubristic madness that formed the foundation of federal energy and climate policy through the Obama and Biden years – that carbon dioxide, without which no life on planet Earth would exist, is a “pollutant” to be regulated by federal bureaucrats – now finds itself on the brink of extinction by the same agency, the EPA, which invented it to begin with.
Musk and Trump have apparently terminated their friendship now, but their combined actions have brought U.S. society back to a place where it is again possible – even desirable – to have fact-based discussions about a wide range of issues, including energy, without fear of being cancelled again. That’s something to be grateful for.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Actress Gina Carano reached a settlement with Disney and Lucasfilm Thursday after filing a lawsuit against the company in 2024 following her firing from the show “The Mandalorian.”
In February 2024, Carano filed the lawsuit, alleging she had been wrongfully terminated and discriminated against. Posting a statement Thursday on X, Carano announced that the more-than-year-long legal battle had officially ended, calling the settlement the “best outcome for all parties involved” and thanking billionaire Elon Musk and her lawyers.
“I hope this brings some healing to the force,” Carano wrote. “I am humbled and grateful to God for His love and grace in this outcome. I’d like to thank you all for your unrelenting support throughout my life and career, you’ve been the heartbeat that has kept my story alive. I hope to make you proud.”
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“I am excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter. My desires remain in the arts, which is where I hope you will join me,” Carano added.
Carano posted her initial announcement of the lawsuit last year on X, stating that Musk would provide lawyers for her after he said he would offer legal representation to those who “had been fired from using the platform (X) for exercising your right to free speech.”
The lawsuit stemmed from Carano’s February 2021 firing from Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series “The Mandalorian.” The actress had been promptly let go from the show after “sharing a post on social media implying that being a Republican today is like being Jewish during the Holocaust,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
At the time of her termination, Lucasfilm released a statement saying there were “no plans for her to be” employed by the company in the future.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable,” the statement read.
In addition to being let go from the show, Carano’s representation, United Talent Management, also dropped her. In response to the company’s statement at the time, Carano called out the “smear campaign ” against her, alleging she had been “hunted down from everything” she posted and liked on social media.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time,” Carano wrote in 2024. “My words were consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me.”
While details of the settlement have not been released, a Lucasfilm spokesperson told Variety that they “look forward to identifying opportunities to work together” with Carano.
“The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Gina Carano to resolve the issues in her pending lawsuit against the companies. Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect. With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson said.
Quick Hit:
Google is under fire after a new study revealed it buried Tulsi Gabbard’s bombshell claims that Barack Obama fabricated Trump-Russia intel—flooding search results with leftist attacks and downplaying the story to protect the former president.
Key Details:
- DNI Tulsi Gabbard accused Obama of fabricating intelligence to bolster the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
- Google News allegedly buried Gabbard’s exposé by promoting stories attacking her instead of covering her claims.
- MRC found that 90% of Google’s promoted coverage came from left-leaning outlets, leaving just 10% for right-leaning perspectives—almost exclusively Fox News.
Diving Deeper:
During a July 23 press briefing, Tulsi Gabbard revealed explosive allegations against the Obama administration, accusing the former president of overriding intelligence assessments that found no Russian interference favoring Donald Trump in 2016. According to Gabbard, Obama “manipulated” the intelligence community to promote a “contrived narrative,” aimed at undermining Trump and, by extension, the will of American voters.
But rather than spotlighting the story’s significance, Google appeared to move swiftly to suppress it. As the MRC study shows, Google’s News tab was flooded with coverage designed to discredit Gabbard—many articles outright calling her a liar or suggesting she was distracting from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. One article from The Atlantic branded Trump’s public support for her findings as “desperate,” while others derided her evidence as “thin gruel” or claimed she was trying to “rewrite history.”
A closer look at Google’s search results between July 24 and July 29 paints a troubling picture. The MRC analyzed the first page of results for the term “Tulsi Gabbard” and found that out of 42 articles, 33 were from outlets classified by AllSides as “Lean Left” or “Left.” Only four were from right-leaning sources—and all four came from a single outlet: Fox News. Three of those Fox articles focused not on Gabbard’s claims, but on attacks against her, often echoing Democratic Party criticism.
MRC highlighted how even these rare conservative pieces offered little defense of Gabbard’s findings. One article simply quoted Rep. Adam Schiff dismissing the accusations as “dishonest.” Others featured video clips of NBC’s Kristen Welker pressing GOP figures like Sen. Lindsey Graham about the credibility of Gabbard’s claims. Only one article directly addressed the substance of her evidence.
Meanwhile, prominent left-leaning outlets featured in Google’s curated feed pushed narratives designed to ridicule or minimize the allegations. MSNBC dismissed her claims as “absurd,” while Politico suggested Gabbard had become a “weapon” for President Trump. CNN accused her of attempting to “rewrite history,” and FactCheck.org labeled her statements “misleading.”
The implications go beyond this single controversy. A 2021 Pew Research Center study found that two-thirds of Americans rely on search engines like Google for their news. This means most Americans are receiving information that has been filtered through what critics argue is an increasingly leftist editorial algorithm.
By not allowing a diversity of viewpoints on such a critical national security issue—especially one involving a former president—Google’s conduct raises serious concerns about media bias and the integrity of information distribution. While it is unsurprising to see The New York Times or CNN toe the DNC line, the monopoly Google holds over digital search amplifies this bias into something far more powerful and dangerous.
The episode underscores a growing divide in how news is curated and presented online. For conservative Americans, it also reinforces a longstanding suspicion: Big Tech is not just biased—it’s actively working to sanitize narratives unfavorable to the Democratic Party.
In this case, shielding Obama and undermining a sitting Trump administration official.
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